Self-sticking notepaper with releasably pressure-sensitive adhesive are a well-recognized office supply across the country. This notepaper was first manufactured having each sheet with a narrow band of adhesive along one edge, successive sheets stacked along that adhesive coated edge, and are commonly known under the registered trademark "POST-IT", owned by Minnesota Mining and Manufacturing Company, St. Paul, Minn., also known as the 3M Company. One major disadvantage of this self-sticking notepaper is that when peeling a sheet from this stack a user cannot distinguish by sight the adhesive edge from the nonadhesive edge and must waste time fumbling with the stack before peeling a sheet off. Another major disadvantage is that the design of the stack of notepaper did not readily lend itself to a convenient dispensing action because successive sheets did not follow each other out of a dispenser or cartridge so the next sheet would be ready for peeling like tissues in a tissue box. The reason for this will become apparent below.
In order to quickly and efficiently dispense this type of notepaper, as one skilled in the art would appreciate, a stack was specifically designed in a fanfold, wherein each separate sheet has a band of adhesive coated along one edge and the sheets are stacked with adhesive coated edges of successive sheets disposed along alternate opposite edges. The dispensing action for this fanfolded notepaper is taught by Smith in U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,416,392 and 4,781,316. This fanfolded notepaper is more easily dispensable than the original non-fanfolded type because upon peeling a separate sheet from the stack in the dispenser, another sheet followed successively like tissues from a tissue box.
In particular, the Smith '392 dispenser shown in FIGS. 1-5 has a box with sides to contain the fanfolded sheets and a top opening, but it is limited in the number of sheets which can be dispensed from a notepad because there is no means to prevent the top sheet of the notepad from falling back through the exit opening as the sheets are being dispensed. When this problem occurs the user is painstakingly required to fish the end of the sheet back through the opening for the remaining sheets, thus defeating the object of the dispenser. This problem also increases in severity as the notepad height increases. (This problem is described in Loder, U.S. Pat. No. 4,562,938, column 2, lines 1-9.)
Smith '392 also teaches an alternative design shown in FIG. 7 to try to avoid this problem wherein a spring pushes fanfolded notepaper towards an opening in the top wall of a refillable container. The container has extended side walls for enclosing the notepaper, and the top wall is formed by two incline portions which terminate at the dispensing opening. It is a disadvantage of this Smith device that during the dispensing action the edges become stressed at the opening and retain a curl after being dispensed. As one skilled in the art would appreciate as the height of the stack of notepaper increases so must the force of the spring pushing it upward. (This disadvantage is described in Windorski, U.S. Pat. No. 4,796,781, column 1, lines 34-38.)
There are many other known disposable and refillable desk-top dispensers known in the art which attempt to overcome the dispensing problem of the Smith '392 designs. For instance, see Loder, in U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,586,629 and 4,596,630, as well as Mertens in U.S. Pat. No. 4,653,666 which all teach different ways to dispense the fanfolded notepaper in a disposable package. While the aforementioned Loder '938 and Windorski '781 patents teach different ways to dispense them in a refillable dispenser.
For instance, Loder '938 teaches a refillable cartridge for a stack of notepaper having gripping means thereon for holding the pads thus preventing the falling back of sheets of the notepaper as dispensed. Windorski '781 teaches a two-piece refillable cartridge having a base for holding the stack of notepaper covered by a weighted body resting thereon.
However, none of these references teaches a dispenser for self-sticking notepaper which is conveniently refillable, easily fabricated, relatively light, and simply constructed and operated, and which will firmly and securely hold a stack of notepaper on a desk to prevent disorder and disarray of the sheets for dispensing one at a time by pulling a sheet extending through a slot.
It is an object of the invention to provide a dispenser for fanfolded notepaper which is a refillable, durable, simple, economical, light, easily fabricated, simple in both design and operation.
It is an object of the invention that the dispenser includes a platform which moves freely on a vertical tracking means upwardly and downwardly.
It is another object of the invention that the vertical tracking means stop that movement at an upper position.